


He Came Knocking At The Dorm Room Door

by Maztermo



Category: Danganronpa, Danganronpa trigger happy havoc
Genre: "There was only one bed" takes up a lot of this too whoops, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Basically "if Leon wasn't stupid" the fic, Chapter 1 Spoilers, Gen, M/M, Makoto is touch-starved, One Shot, Short Story, Talking, only a lil though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:01:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21861751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maztermo/pseuds/Maztermo
Summary: "Makoto awoke to the sound of intense knocking and the doorbell being slammed over and over again."Trapped in a school where it's kill or be killed, Makoto finds himself questioning who to trust when someone bursts through his door with terror in his eyes. Hearing his plea doesn't make it any easier to sleep, especially not when his only friend is being convicted of attempted murder.
Relationships: Kuwata Leon/Naegi Makoto, Leon Kuwata/Makoto Naegi
Comments: 7
Kudos: 291
Collections: Quality Fics





	He Came Knocking At The Dorm Room Door

Makoto awoke to the sound of intense knocking and the doorbell being slammed over and over again. It wasn’t pleasant to wake up to, he felt chills run down his back and his eyes stung from suddenly opening them. The knocking didn’t stop even when he put his hand on the doorknob and twisted. 

“Hel—”

“Makoto! Oh, thank fuck” Leon barged into the room, pushing the door into the host’s face. 

Makoto stumbled, some blood dripped to his lip. “Leon, what’s going on?”

“Okay,” Leon started. He trembled. His breathing was all over the place. Hyperventilating and struggling to face Makoto. “Okay, okay, okay. S-so, there was— I mean she— I got—”

“Leon, please,” Makoto put one of his hand out reassuringly, the other pinched his own nose, “try to calm down.”

“I can’t! I nearly just died, man!” Leon shouted. 

The room went silent, the door finally shut itself behind them. Leon kneaded his hands through his hair, legs shaking underneath him. Makoto wiped the blood from his face onto the back of his hand. He took a deep breath. Makoto walked to the bed and sat on the end.

“Leon,” he restarted with a nasally voice, “Could you please tell me what’s wrong?” He patted the spot next to him.

Leon hesitated, then shuffled over to the bed. He nervously sat on the covers, putting a lot of space between them.

“W-well. I got a note... it was slipped under my door. It said to meet up at Sayaka’s room,” he pinched his jacket sleeves for comfort, “B-but when I came to Sayaka’s room, sh-she... she just...”

Makoto shuffled closer, resting a hand just beside Leon’s leg. “She just...?”

“I dunno man, she had a knife and she swung and almost cut me but I picked up a sword that was there for some reason and then—” Leon sunk his head into his hands.

“Wait, she attacked you?”

“Yeah, I guess but then I hit her with the sword and she dropped the knife and ran into the bathroom and I’m scared and I don’t know what to do, man!”

Makoto paused, not quite sure what to do with this information. He found it unbelievable but he couldn’t deny Leon’s real fear. It just made him question things. “Why did you come to find me?”

“I tried to get Sakura but she wouldn’t answer the door. I looped around the dorms so she couldn’t follow me but when I tried to get back to my room, I thought I heard something and you were the closest there so I just pounded the doorbell and hoped you’d wake up.”

“I see...”

They sat in silence for a bit. Makoto creased his brows, scanned the floor for nothing in particular. He hoped some of it would make sense but it never did. He wasn’t sure if he could believe Leon but nothing told him he was lying. He found it especially hard when he heard Leon choking, desperately trying to suck the tears back into his eyes before they could roll.

“I-I can’t die here,” Leon shuddered.

“Do you think you can make it back to your dorm?” Makoto suggested.

Leon looked up, “What?! Hell no! I’m not going back out there, not when someone’s out there who’s gonna fucking kill me!”

Makoto cringed and looked away again. “Hey, what if you stayed over in this room for the night?”

Leon clenched his teeth, “Isn’t that kinda weird though?”

“Well, what else do you think we should do?”

“Confront her! You’re her friend, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, but... I dunno! It would be better if we talked about this in the daytime while everyone is awake, including Sakura and Mondo.”

Leon stared blankly at his own hands. Unable to think of anything better, he sighed in defeat. “Fine.”

Makoto brought his legs up onto the bed and crawled to the pillows. He made himself comfortable under the covers and looked up at Leon. Leon stood from the bed and kneeled onto the floor.

“What are you doing?” Makoto asked.

“What’s it look like I’m doing? I’m gonna sleep here, okay?”

“I mean, why on the floor?” Makoto propped himself up onto his elbows, “There’s room up here if—”

“I’m fine,” Leon was oddly defensive.

“It doesn’t feel right if you’re lying on the floor while I get a bed, there is room up here if you—”

“I said, _I’m fine_.” Leon lay down, his back turned to the bed.

Makoto sighed, “Fine.” He rolled over to face the wall and tried to drift off again.

Even when his eyelids were closed, his eyes kept shifting from side-to-side. He brought his knees closer to his chest, then sprawled out his legs. He shifted his arms over and under the covers. He rolled over and shifted to the other end of the bed, then moved back again later. He slept indecisively. 

Something didn’t sit right but he wasn’t sure if it was about Leon. His head raced with thoughts about Sayaka.

_Why would Sayaka try to kill Leon?_

More questions came afterwards.

_Is that why she wanted to switch rooms? Was she lying? Was she planning on betraying me? Was she going to frame me for murder?_

He found himself in the fetal position, eyes boring into the wall and hands clawing into his hair. He shook in place. The fear seemed to be contagious, it carried from Leon to Makoto and kept him awake. He wondered if Leon was going to betray him too or if he was lying. The anxiety kept him from sleeping. He stayed like that for several minutes, then fifteen, then half an hour. His hands clutched onto his shoulders and dug into his shirt.

Leon made a groan from the floor and Makoto froze. He couldn’t tell what he was doing, he just heard him sigh and then the sound of shoes clopping on the floor. There was a brief pause, the silence was interrupted by soft thud and then a pair of things quietly hitting the floor. Then he stood up and hovered at the edge of the bed. Makoto was ready to sink under the covers and run to the door if he had to. Leon lifted up the sheet and slowly sat down, flinching when the mattress creaked under him. There was some shuffling and then nothing. For a moment, Makoto had stopped breathing. He turned his head to look behind him but all he saw was spiked, orange hair beside him. Leon had taken off his jacket, his arm lay on top of the covers. He was modest with how much of the bed he took up. He heard quiet moans as he settled into the bed, barely resting on the end of the pillow. 

Makoto finally took in a deep breath. He swallowed what previous anxiety he had left in him and his muscles relaxed. His legs unfurled and he took his hands away from his hair. Once he was breathing, he noticed the strong scent of deodorant suddenly present. It was a weird addition to the already floral smell that Sayaka’s bed brought to the room but not entirely unwelcome. He wondered where Leon would get something so strong. The school store? As far as he could tell, there was no shopkeep so he could have easily climbed over the counter and took something there. Would the school store even supply something like that?

Something told him this was a stupid discussion to have with himself and that it probably wouldn’t be as important as he thought it would be. The mattress creaked as Leon moved around in his sleep. Makoto didn’t realise how difficult it would be to get over the fact that someone else was sleeping in his bed but hey, there’s a first time for everything. 

Then he recalled a memory from his childhood where his little sister was scared one night and their parents were out. She knocked on his door with her teddy in one hand and wiping the tears out of her eyes with the back of the other. He offered some space on the other side of the bed but to keep them separated, she tried to keep a pillow wall between them using the cushions from the sofa. That ended up falling apart pretty quickly. He smiled at the memory. He rolled over in an attempt to fall asleep. Leon shifted his arm closer to himself. 

Makoto wondered if Leon had any nice memories like the one with his sister. Did Leon even have a sibling? He didn’t think it would be worth waking him up just to ask. As far as stupid reasons to wake someone up were concerned, Leon’s reason looked a lot more excusable than his. 

Still, his mind wandered a little. Leon sure liked to talk up his rock-star dream and how much he liked women. What would be happening behind the scenes? Was he an only child? Was his deep hatred for baseball caused by something or was it gradual? 

_I sure am asking a lot of questions. I should try to sleep. Then, in the morning, we can get up and—_

Leon sighed and rolled over so the two were facing each other. His face looked strained and his eyelids were wrinkled. If he was asleep, it was in the shallow end. If Makoto needed an excuse to wake him up, he had to think of something that was both convincing and warranted. He looked stressed, that’s one. To talk...? Would Leon think that was warranted? He might’ve after the talk.

He shook his head. _I’m overthinking this._

“Leon?” he said in a hushed voice.

Leon mumbled something under his breath.

“Leon, are you alright?”

Leon rolled onto his back and dragged his hand over his face. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Does it look like I’m alright?”

“Not really. Guess that’s why I asked.”

“God, just... I can’t sleep, not after what just happened.”

Makoto sat up. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“What else is there to say? I told you, she lured me into her room and tried to stab me. I only got away because she hesitated long enough for me to grab the weird sword thing.” Leon pulled his shoulders off of the bed and rested on his elbows. “I could’ve died, man! I can’t die in this place, I gotta get out there and be a rock star!”

Makoto brought his knees to his chin and wrapped his arms around his legs. He looked off to the side. “Do you... want to tell me how you feel?”

“What? Are you like a therapist now or something?”

“No, just a concerned classmate. You did look really shaken up when I opened the door. I want to make sure you’re okay.” He smiled. It was a little weak but it had heart.

Leon looked away. Makoto couldn’t see his face. Leon’s fingers anxiously tapped on the sheets. Finally, he turned his head back around. “I guess I’m scared. I think that’s pretty obvious on its own.”

“That would make sense, yes.”

“Do you ever just imagine a scenario going a little differently in your head? Like you say something and then you think about what could have happened if you said something else? Sort of like an alternate universe or something.”

Makoto nodded.

“Well, in that moment with the sword and the knife and everything, I kinda saw my life flash before my eyes.” Leon bit his bottom lip. He looked like he was debating something. He kept going anyway. “I... I don’t wanna die, I mean obviously I don’t wanna die but all I saw baseball and trophies about baseball and my weird cousin and after I got out of there, I started thinking about why I wanted to escape. It’s not to play baseball so why is that the only thing I saw?”

Makoto thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. I have two theories though.”

Leon cocked a brow, prompting him to continue.

“The first is that you saw your past achievements as a way to push you forward like a way to motivate your brain to survive. If you hold those achievements close enough to your heart, it could become a reason to live.”

“Could be,” Leon nodded, “and the other?”

“Maybe you saw meaning beyond baseball. You said you saw your cousin, right? Were your parents in your baseball memories?”

“From the sidelines, yeah.”

“That could have been it. Maybe you remembered baseball because you remembered your family and how much they mean to you.”

Leon’s eyes trailed down in thought. His face was blank, quiet reflection glossed over him. His blinks were heavier, his chest was rising and falling slower. He wasn’t shuddering or twitching or tapping his fingers.

“What does that have to do with alternate universes?”

“Hm?” Leon suddenly looked up.

“You mentioned alternative universes but that’s different from seeing past memories,” Makoto’s lip twitched to a quick smile before falling again. “I figured you wouldn’t get those two things mixed up.”

“I didn’t. I thought the thing I said would distract you from it, honestly.” 

“It almost worked,” Makoto shrugged.

Leon leaned on one arm and scratched his head. “Yeah, well, not well enough.”

“You don’t have to tell me if...” Makoto let his sentence trail as an invitation.

“While I was trying to sleep, I started seeing things that could’ve happened instead. If Sayaka had stabbed me. Would anyone notice? Would they have found the body?”

Makoto upturned his brows. “I would have noticed. I’m sure Taka would have too.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t the weirdest part though.” Leon sat up with his legs crossed. “I think I saw a reality where _I_ was the killer.”

“What?”

Leon raised his hands. “Okay, hear me out. I didn’t lure Sayaka and pull a knife on her. What I mean is that I defended myself and she ran to the bathroom just like what happened here, right? But instead of runnin’ around and trying to get help, I went to my room and took out a toolkit and tried to break down the door to the bathroom cause it was locked.”

“No, the door was just jammed,” Makoto corrected.

Leon shook his head. “Monokuma said the girls’ rooms had locks on the bathroom doors. I couldn’t get the damn thing open when I tried.”

“That’s my room. We’re in Sayaka’s room.”

“What?”

Makoto lowered his knees, also sitting cross legged. He quickly explained why she came to him and how they swapped rooms. As he kept going, he started noticing weird details like how Leon went to _his_ room despite it being an invitation from _Sayaka_. Or how Leon managed to find Makoto in Sayaka’s room. He looked more visibly confused as he recalled the evening.

“I was wondering why your bed smelled like flowers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice and all, it’s just that I didn’t expect you to spice up your room like that,” Leon shrugged.

“How did you find Sayaka if she was in _my_ room?”

“I didn’t know it was your room. I just found the door with her name on it.”

“But that would be _this_ room.” Makoto pointed down in emphasis.

“This room had _your_ name on it.” Leon pieced it together in his head. “Wait wait wait, do you think she swapped your room names to lure me in?”

Makoto jumped to Sayaka’s defence. “N-no way! There’s no way she’d do that, she was just scared!”

“Dude, she slipped a note under my door with her signature on it, I could go get it if you came with me. The door names were swapped and I don’t know if you remembered but she _pulled out a fucking knife on me!_ I’m pretty sure she was trying to kill me and frame you for it.”

Makoto didn’t believe it. It was clear on his face and by the way his hands grasped at nothing. The one person he knew and was spending time with was going to frame him for murder? Why would she do that?

Seeking clarity, he shuffled off of the bed and walked to the rubbish bin. He pulled out the CD case at the top of the pile. It was too hard to read in the dark but he was pretty sure he knew what it was. He remembered what he saw on his video; his family cheering him on from home and wishing him good luck. His sister smiled and waved to him. Then they disappeared and the house was left in disarray. The couch was torn and burnt, the walls were crumbled and his family was nowhere to be seen. If everyone received videos like those... he began to rationalise Leon’s story. She was scared that the people she loved were in danger. That could mean her fans or her family or her idol friends. Any one of those would be enough to cause the outburst in that classroom. He was right, Sayaka was scared. The one thing he underestimated was how far that fear would take her. 

He looked over to Leon who was playing with the pillow. From how scared Leon was when he burst into his room, it was undeniable that something had gone down. Then that talk about her dream... it was her confessing how much it meant to her. She’d chased it for so long, she was willing to sacrifice so much to let it come true. With this new context, she was even willing to sacrifice someone else with their own dreams and ambitions.

Was that the truth? Sayaka wanted to escape and lured Leon in to kill him? This was proving too much to handle in one evening.

...

“Hey, you alright?” Leon called from the bed.

“Huh?” Makoto dropped the CD back into the bin and turned his head.

“You’ve been standing there shaking for a while. Are you cold or something?”

Needing an excuse, Makoto said, “A bit.”

The mattress squeaked as Leon shifted off of it. Makoto turned to see Leon picking up his own jacket and turning the sleeves the right way around. “It’s not much but at least it’s comfy.” 

He walked over to Makoto and draped it over his shoulders. Makoto slipped his arms into the jacket and pulled it closer. It wasn’t thin but it certainly wasn’t the warmest jacket ever made. The warmest part was short and it was so light it was barely there at all. It was a trail of fingers on the shoulders as the jacket fell on him. It was the slight bump from the chest as he accidentally stumbled too close. Makoto didn’t realise how vulnerable he felt until he was about to admit that he probably needed a hug. He wouldn’t think Leon would be completely against it but it was a weird enough request in a tense environment that he decided to keep quiet. 

Both of them ambled toward the bed, Leon waited for Makoto to crawl on first. It was a little disappointing that he couldn’t revel in gently brushing his leg over Leon’s while mumbling a quiet apology. He wouldn’t admit it that he wasn’t sorry or that he wanted to be in contact in the first place but even a small bit of consolation would have been nice. An “I’m sorry,” or a reassuring pat on the back would have sufficed.

He curled up on his side of the bed and faced away from the middle. One cursed thing about these rooms was the fact that he couldn’t press himself against the wall in bed. He had pushed his bed to the far wall but out of respect, he left Sayaka’s where it was. He pulled the sheet up to his chin. The bed dipped as Leon sat and kicked his feet over the edge.

“I’m sorry.”

Makoto turned his head. Leon was staring up at the ceiling. 

“What for?”

“For barging in and punching the door into your face and for creepily getting in the bed. Were you awake for that?”

“Yeah.”

“Whoops.”

“It’s alright. I didn’t want you on the floor anyway.”

There was a moment of quiet. Makoto played with the collar of the jacket.

“You know, you’re a lot nicer than a lot of people here. I can’t see you wearing a mask or attempting to frame someone. It could be your face or how short you are.”

Makoto rolled his eyes. “I’m not _that_ short.”

“Point is, I don’t think I could’ve trusted anyone else with this. I mean, Taka’s the Moral Compass or something but even he would get on my case and probably call me a liar. Or if not, he’d be really noisy and give me a wicked headache.”

Makoto stifled a laugh.

“Um... I guess this is a roundabout way of me saying thank you. So, thank you for taking me in and listening.”

"You're welcome." Makoto smiled.

He turned his head back to the wall. Leon’s shoulder bumped Makoto’s back and thus was the end of acceptable but much needed contact. It left him warm when there was a hushed “Sorry,” behind him. He refused to believe he was within the realm of touch-starved but this evening was making him question that. He never felt starved, only in appreciation of it. It was already a lot being offered a jacket. He could see how easily manipulated he was from Sayaka crying on his chest, that was a little troubling.

He entertained what he thought the next morning would be like. They’d wake up, get properly dressed and head to the dining hall where Taka would be (it was highly unlikely that he wouldn’t be there first). Leon would stick close and tell the group about what had happened the night before, all eyes would fall on Sayaka. That’s assuming she would even show up at all. A discussion is had, a solution is reached and everything can go back to... whatever would constitute as normal.

_Good, this is a good plan._

At least he could say there was some peace, no more questions were being asked.

Well, no more but one. 

_How close would I and Leon get?_


End file.
